{"id":6526,"date":"2026-02-09T14:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/6526\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:09:06","slug":"brussels-warns-whatsapp-to-stop-blocking-alternative-ai-services-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/6526\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels warns WhatsApp to stop blocking alternative AI services \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission announced<\/a> on Monday (9 February) that it has warned US tech giant Meta to reverse a WhatsApp policy that blocks alternative AI services from operating on the messaging service \u2013 which the executive\u2019s preliminary view sees as violating the bloc\u2019s antitrust laws.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The apparent violation stems from a WhatsApp Business Solutions policy change, implemented in October,<\/a> that blocks businesses from communicating with customers when AI is the offered service. <\/p>\n

That move could make Meta AI, the company\u2019s own chatbot, the sole AI assistance on the service.<\/p>\n

Prior to the change, users could communicate with alternative chatbots on the messaging service. <\/p>\n

In January,<\/a> Meta AI competitor ChatGPT stopped operating on WhatsApp due to the policy change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on their initial findings, the commission sees WhatsApp as an important gateway for users to connect with general-purpose AI assistance but views Meta as likely abusing its dominant position by restricting third-party AI services.<\/p>\n

The commission therefore announced it intends to impose interim measures to prevent the policy from \u201ccausing serious and irreparable harm to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explaining the move, Teresa Ribera, commission vice-president for competition, wrote in the press release: \u201cAI markets are developing at a rapid pace, so we also need to be swift in our actions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why we are considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The commission began investigating the policy for potential antitrust violations in December<\/a> of last year. <\/p>\n

Their preliminary findings align with similar conclusions already made by the Italian Competition and Market Authority<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A similar antitrust case against the policy change by Brazilian authorities was suspended in January<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meta responds<\/p>\n

Reacting to the findings, a Meta spokesperson told EUobserver: \u201cThe facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene in the WhatsApp Business API.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission\u2019s logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

According to Reuters<\/a>, the messaging service now has 46 million monthly users in the EU.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Due to the size of that user base, the platform finds itself under even more European regulatory scrutiny.<\/p>\n

In January, WhatsApp was designated a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) by the commission, a legal designation that entails even stricter operating requirements under the Digital Services Act.<\/p>\n

The interim measures also come at a time when tension between the US and EU over tech relations is extremely high, with Washington seeing Europe\u2019s rules as censoring US companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meta now has a chance to defend itself before the final conclusions are presented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission announced on Monday (9 February) that it has warned US tech giant Meta to reverse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[5754,211,210,5766,5763,5760,5757,5755,5758,5761,5764,5756,5759,5762,5765],"class_list":{"0":"post-6526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-brussels","11":"tag-identifier29","12":"tag-identifier30","13":"tag-identifier4381","14":"tag-identifier4383","15":"tag-nameai","16":"tag-namebig-tech","17":"tag-namedigital","18":"tag-namerule-of-law","19":"tag-termcodeai","20":"tag-termcodebig-tech","21":"tag-termcodedigital","22":"tag-termcoderule-of-law"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}